The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1887-05-05
RIVERS OF FIRE.
EunnrF1C SCENES OF VOLCANIC
ACTIVITY IN HAWAII.

lne mails from tno HAWAIIAN lslhnus
give interesting details Of the earth
quakes and volcanic eruptions that have
been going on there. An occasional
slight shock of earthquake is little no
ticed in this region; but ever since early
in December there has been a steady
Increase in the force and the frequency
Of the shocks. By the 18th of January
they had increased to an average of about
three day, and they became heavier and
heavier until the 10Th, when it was evil
dent that an eruption was to be expected,
though none could tell where 1t would
burst forth. In the forty-eight hours
that followed, the earth kept up a con-
slant trembling, with every now and then
vicious jerk, first in one direction and
then with equal force in directly oppo-
site line; so that the movement of the
houses was like that of boat in chop
ping sea, and the effect produced on
human beings was like sea-sickness. The
vibration was almost continuous; but the
shocks followed one another at intervals
of from three to five minutes, with occa-
sionally three in succession strongly
marked, as is often the case with ocean
waves.
At intervals there were awful thunder
storms, accompanied by vivid lightning
and a wild wind; but on the evening of
Sunday, January 16, the heavens were of
clear, intense blue, with brilliant star
light, and the great rounded dome of
Mauna-Loa and the many cones of
Mauna-Kea lay pure and cold beneath
deep covering of newly-fallen snow. AT
nine o'clock P. NJ. the people beheld a
mighty column of fire and illuminated
smoke burst up, not from the summit
crater of Mokuaweo-weo, but from Po-
hakuohanalei, one of group of extinct
craters lying about three miles down the
western slope. The night air was chill,
but for two hours and a half the people
wandered about, waiting to see what
would happen next, when, suddenly as
It had appeared, the light vanished, and
then the earth-quivers commenced in right
good earnest. But the pillar of fire and
smoke was not seen again till about noon
on Tuesday, during which time the lava
was forcing its way by an underground
channel, till it again burst to the surface
within mile of another extinct crater
named Hslepoohaahaa; where it rent
fissure mile and half in length, and
thence poured forth in three streams, all
of which crossed the government road
on their seaward way. This means that
wide tracts of the said road now lie.
deeply imbedded beneath masses of the
coarsest black lava, of the sort which re-
sembles huge blocks of concrete and
seems never to disintegrate. For the
first twenty-four hours all the lava
elected was of this nature, but afterward
all that was thrown up was pahoehoe-
the smooth, creamy-looking rock which
becomes pulverized within few years,
and then requires only the action Of
tunate; but in the meantime much good
pasturage has been destroyed.
The coarse lava invariably flows in a
sluggish stream, probably not exceeding
mile and a-half per hour, whereas the
more fluid foaloehOe often travels at the
rate of twenty-five miles an hour. One
of the three streams reached the sea on
the 10th of January, having travelled cir
cuitously for about twenty miles, the d.
rect distance from the point of eruption
being only about twelve miles. A wild
wind had already churned the ocean into
foam, and deep thunder seemed to echo
the booming of the heavy surf, when this
fiery food arrived to add its seething and
roaring to the tumult of the elements.
On the morning of the Goth party of
men made their way through the forest
to the point of eruption, which is at a
height Of about 5000 feet above the sea
(the total height of the mountain is Il, 900
feet). They describe the scene as grand
beyond conception. Fifteen fountains
of molten lava were in full play, throw
ing up huge boulders of black rock to a
height of 200 feet, while the fluid fiery
rock fell in scattered showers like rock
cts. Columns of smoke rose to fully 500
feet. Explosions of pent-up gases, the
roar Of rushing lava, and the crashing of
thunder blended in deafening chorus.
Vivid lightning played around, while a
heavy hail-shower fell Kissing on the sur
of the mountain for width of two miles
was one vast sheet of fluid blood-red fire
IA rushing roaring river of molten rock,
bearing on its surface boulders weighing
tons.
Standing on the brink of that unfath-
omable fissure, the whole line of fire lay
In sight, extending from the mountain to
the sea; burning its way through the for
est, filing up little valleys, and spreading
out in fiery lake on the plain. 1t had
not yet begun to cool, and was brilliant
red It's whole length, only blackened on
the edges. The sight at night was mag
nihcent; the columns of lurid smoke and
the reflected glare in the clouds and on
the dark forests combining to produce q
scene Of bewildering grandeur So vivid
was the light that small print could be
read at midnight at distance of many
miles. The Portuguese laborers on some
Of the plantations, not having acquired
Z the sang-froid of the Hawaiians, were
almost wild with terror, and spent their
time sobbing and wailing and calling on
the saints.
Contents Of . Gods Stomach.
Last Saturday evening, at the regular
Hsefing Of the Biological Society held at the
United States National Museum in this city,
: Captain J. w. Collins, the scientific skipper
~ the United States fishery commission, ex-
!. Mh1fed q collection of cuYios which had